Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is on every website owner’s mind. We all want our sites to be noticed and ranked (highly, we hope) by the search engines so that our target audience can find us easily on the web. That is, after all, the whole point of having a website! If you’ve done any research into SEO, it seems pretty straight forward. Use well-structured metadata, page titles, and you're golden, right? Well, that's a good start, but here's a few more things you can do.
1. Don't Overdo Your Key Words
Key words are, well, key. You want to make sure your metadata includes a list of keywords that your audience is likely to use to find you (or sites like yours), but don’t inflate the list. Flooding your metadata with keywords, or repeating keywords in multiple areas of your site such as your footer, even repeating key words unnecessarily in your post titles can all have a negative effect on the way search engines view your site. Hiding key word areas on your site by making the text the same color as the background is also a big no-no. It may not be visible to the human eye, but search bots aren’t fooled, and they don’t like sneaky tricks like that! Keep your key word usage reasonable, and let your content do the rest of the work!
2. Post Fresh, Original Content
Wanna really grab the attention of all the search engines out there? Fresh, original content posted on a regular basis is the best way to climb in the rankings. If you have a blog, try to keep a regular posting schedule. When you post to your blog, or update your site content, keep the content original. Use your own words. Your readers will sense your genuineness and come back for more, and search engines will recognize unique content and rank your site accordingly. It’s a win win!
3. No Filler
Some content can actually hinder your site in search engine standings. Lengthy lists of links (like bookmarks or favorites), content copied from other websites (even if you gave proper credit and linkbacks), or web copy that is shared within communities and used by many members on their individual websites can appear as filler to search engines’ robots (not a good thing). If you have long lists of affiliate or favorites links in your sidebar, consider trimming the lists down. If you can’t bear to part with a single link on your list, just remove the list from your sidebar (which shows up dynamically on every page of your site), and move it to one static “Links” page on your site.
4. Make Use of SEO Tools
Most search engines have information about how their engine ranks sites. Read up and make sure you’re keeping within their guidelines, and you’ll probably even learn new things you can do to increase your site’s search engine love! Google offers Webmaster Tools, a free service that can help you get a handle on how Google’s search bots crawl your site. If you’ve got a self-hosted WordPress blog, there are TONS of great SEO plugins that can automate a lot of SEO tasks for you. Type “webmaster info” into a Google search, and you’ll turn up lots of great info.
Helpful SEO Links
Here are some resources that will help you get a handle on SEO for your site.
Google Webmasters Central
Google Webmaster Guidlines
Ask.com’s Info for Webmasters
WordPress All-in-One SEO Plugin Pack
WordPress Google XML Sitemaps Generator Plugin
Have SEO tips to add? Leave a comment below and share what you've learned!
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